Apparatus for supplying carbonated water to soft drink bars



F. WELTY ETAL APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING CARBONATED WATER T0 SOFT DRINKBARS Origin-a1. Filed Feb. 6, 1961 2 Sheeis-$heet 1 mm F CARBONATEDWATER '2 INVENTOR FRANK WELTY RAYMOND D.WELTY BY v v ATTORNEY I Aug. 2,1966 F. WELTY ETAL. Q 3,263,864

APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING CARBQNATED WATER TO SOFT DRINK BARS OriginalFiled Feb. 6, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I 3|'\- 32 35 34 2 w 9 6 e 9 SYRUP INQI 4 Q ,1

INVENTOR FRANK WELTY RAYMOND D. WELTY United States Patent 3,263,864APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING CARBONATED WATER T0 SOFT DRINK BARS Frank Welty,4962 Lockwood Blvd., and Raymond D. Welty, 4307 Lake Road, both ofYoungstown, Uhio Continuation of application Ser. No. 87,164, Feb. 6,1961. This application Sept. 15, 1965, Ser. No. 487,417 5 Claims. (Cl.222-129) This application is a continuation of application Serial No.87,164, filed February 6, 1961, now abandoned.

The invention relates to the art of preparing and dispensing softdrinks, and more particularly to improved and simplified apparatus forsupplying carbonated water for the preparation of carbonated soft drinksat dispensing bars and the like.

At dispensing locations where a fairly large volume of business in thesale of carbonated beverages is normally done it is now common practiceto make the carbonated water required directly on the premises, makinguse of the available drinking water supply, a carbonator, usuallyelectrically operated, for dispersing a predetermined proportion ofcarbon dioxide gas throughout the plain water, and refrigeratingapparatus. The carbonated and cooled water is conducted to a mixingvalve which is also conveniently the dispensing faucet wherein thechilled carbonated water is mixed, in predetermined proportion, with aflavoring syrup upon the mixed drinks being discharged into theconsumers glass. The syrup is conveniently stored in a pressure vesselalso kept under refrigeration, with the supply of syrup beingreplenished from time-to-time from suitable large shipping containers.In this manner a substantially unlimited quantity of individual drinksis always on tap, and substantial economies in the preparation anddispensing of the drinks are effected.

Many soft drinks, such as the cola drinks, for example, require a mixingwater having a high degree of carbonation to satisfy the preference of alarge majority of the consumers while other drinks such as highlyflavored fruit punches, for example, can only be properly prepared withlow carbonated water. Thus, a complete soft drink bar requires, inaddition to an adequate supply of chilled plain water, a supply ofhighly carbonated water as well as a supply of low carbonated water.Heretofore the furnishing of this dual supply of carbonated water haspresented substantial problems since, on the one hand, the addition of asecond carbonating machine with its attendant controls substantiallyraises the cost of the complete installation while, on the other hand,the attempts heretofore made to simply mix the highly carbonated waterwith plain water to obtain a supply of low carbonated water has resultedin very erratic results.

It is accordingly the primary object of this invention to provideimproved apparatus for use in a soda bar having a unitary source ofcarbonated water for injecting a controlled amount of carbon dioxide gasinto a flowing stream of plain water to thus provide practical anddependable multiple carbonated water sources. A further object of theinvention is the provision of apparatus for accomplishing the objectstated immediately above which is very simple in concept andconstruction and which adds little to the overall cost of the completebar installation.

In accordance with the principles of our invention the controlledquantity of carbonating gas which is added to 3,263,864 Patented August2, 1966 the flowing stream of plain water to provide a source of lowcarbonated water as explained above may be derived either from acontrolled quantity of highly carbonated water or from a controlledquantity of raw carbonating gas, and in either apparatus the operationis such that the degree of low carbonation is uniform and consistentthroughout the Whole of the dispensing cycle of the mixing valve orfaucet to which the supply of this water is connected. It is wellrecognized that the amount of carbon dioxide gas absorbed in any body ofwater is dependent on temperature, pressure, and availability of the gasto the body of water. In the arrangements of the present invention themixing Water stored immediately ahead of the mixing and dispensingfaucet or faucets is always protected against an abnormal supply of gaswhich would tend to produce, in the stored body of water, a degree ofcarbonation beyond the low value for which the apparatus is set.Accordingly, our apparatus, in either of its embodiments, is dependablein operation regardless of variations in temperature and pressurenormally encountered in systems of the general kind involved.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent upon consideration of the following specification and theaccompanying drawing wherein there is disclosed certain preferredembodiments of the invention.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary view of the face of a soft drink dispensingcabinet, showing schematically two mixing and dispensing faucets;

FIGURE 2 is a schematic showing of apparatus which may be used tofurnish high carbonated and low carbonated water, respectively, to themixing and dispensing faucets of FIGURE 1, the apparatus utilizing thepreferred method of our invention; and

FIGURE 3 is a schematic showing of modified apparatus utilizing analternate embodiment of our method for furnishing low carbonated waterto a soft drink bar.

Referring [first to FIGURES 1 and 2, reference numeral 16 designates acombined mixing valve and dispensing faucet of the kind having anoperating handle 11 and a dispensing nozzle 12. Carbonated water may befurnished the valve 10 from a suitable source 13 through a conduit 14,and the flavoring syrup is furnished to the same valve from a suitablesource 15 through conduit 16. As explained above, source 1 3 maycomprise a carbonating machine in which a volume of water is agitatedand foamesced with carbon dioxide gas under pressure, and alsopreferably under refrigeration, to produce an outflow of highlycarbonated water. We shall assume that the valve 10 is for the purposeof dispensing mixed drinks of the kind in which a high or fairly highdegree of carbonation is desired.

Reference numeral 17 designates a combined mixing valve and dispensingfaucet identical in all respects to the valve 10 and arranged to besupplied with carbonated water through conduit 18 and with syrup fromthe suitable source 19 through conduit 20. To supply the car bonatedwater to the conduit 18 we provide a source 21 of plain water whichpreferably comprises a refrigerated coil or tank, from which 'water issupplied to a header 22 which also receives carbonated water from thesource -13. Interconnecting the source 13 and the header 22 is a flowcontrol valve 23 and a check valve 2-4. Valve 23 is of knownconstruction in which a yieldable washer 25 is adapted to impinge on asuitable seat in the direction of fluid flow to maintain substantiallyconstant the rate of discharge regardless of variations in the pressureof the fluid entering the valve. Check valve 24 is oriented, as shown,to allow tor the flow of water from the source 13 to the header 22 whilepreventing flow in the opposite direction.

Interposed in series between the plain water source 21 and the header 22is a second flow control valve 26 and a check valve 27. Valve 26 issimilar in all respects to the valve 23 except that its deformablewasher 28 may have a different durometer value so that the rate of theplain water is'more than the rate of discharge of the carbonated water.In a representative installation for very low carbonation the valve 23may be chosen to give .14 gallon per minute while the valve 26 is chosento pass .9 gallon perminute, for example. Check Valve 27, like valve 24,is so oriented as to permit the inflow of plain water to header 22 whilepreventing the reverse flow.

The system comprised of the two sources 13 and 21, the valves 23 and 26and the mixing header 22 which discharges through conduit 18, may beconsidered as means for conducting a 110W of plain water at apredetermined rate to the mixing valve 17 into which flow is injectedcarbonating gas at a controlled rate as is contained in the highlycarbonated water which is passed by the valve 23 at a controlled rate.The purpose of the check valves 24 and 27 is, of course, to prevent anyunbalance in the pre-set proportion since it should be obvious that if,for example, the pressure at 13 should rise appreciably higher than thepressure at 21 that carbonated water will be fed back into the plainwater lines which will have the elfect of increasing the degree ofcarbonation in the conduit 18 when the valve 17 is next opened. Itshould further be observed that no matter how long the valve 17 remainsclosed between servings, for example, the amount of gas entrapped in theliquid in the conduits 18 and 22 remains the same so that when the valve17 is next opened there is no out-rush of gas to cause splashing or tootherwise interfere with the normal functioning of the valve 17. Inactual practice the total volume of the passages between the valve 17and the sources 13 and 21 is quite small so that these passages need notbe refrigerated.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGURE 3, we again utilizesources 13 and 21 of refrigerated carbonated and plain water,respectively, and again, source 13 is connected to the combined mixingand dispensing valve 10 for handling drinks requiring a normal or highdegree of carbonation. As shown in FIGURE 3, source 13 is connected tovalve 10 through conduit 29. In this embodiment plain water from source21 is conveyed to the combined mixing and dispensing valve 17 through aflow control valve 30, and again, the valve 17 is marked and utilizedfor mixing and dispensing drinks requiring a low degree of carbonation.A conduit 31 interconnects the outlet of valve 30 with the Water inletof mixing valve 17, and communicating with the conduit 31 is a conduit32 through which is supplied carbon dioxide gas from a cylinder 33.Cylinder 33 is the conventional shipping container for liquified carbondioxide gas and, in our installation, may be the same source of gas asis used for the carbonator at the source 13, as explained above.Interposed between the cylinder 33 and the conduit 32 is a regulator 34and a check valve 35, and it should be noted that the check valve 3 isso oriented as to permit the entry of gas into the conduit 32 whilepreventing the fiow of Liquid from this conduit into the regulator 34.

In most applications of practical use the flow control valve 30 isselected or set to deliver into the conduit 31 about one gallon of plainwater per minute. The size of the conduit 31 is so chosen in relation tothe passages in the valve 17 that without the application of any gaspressure very little pressure would exist in this conduit 21. Theregulator is normally set to allow the inflow of 4 gas under about 24pounds per square inch pressure. With these parameters and at the normaltemperature of the water issuing from valve 30 the water picks up onlyso much gas, and the resultant product is found to be consistently atthe degree of carbonation desired at the valve 17. Normally the pressureat the source 21 is substantially higher than the pressure at theregulator 34 so that upon the valve 17 being closed and the resultantbuild up of pressure in conduit 31 above the setting of regulator 34 andup to the value of source 21 the check valve 35 will be closed and thebody of water immediately ahead of the valve 17 will remain at itsinitialed degree of carbonation.

It should now be apparent that we have provided improved and simplifiedmethods and apparatus for supplying beverage mixing water having a lowcontrolled degree of carbonation which accomplishes the objectsinitially set out. Inasmuch as beverage dispensing bars of the kind atwhich the drinks are mixed invariably have a source of normallycarbonated water and/ or a tank of compressed C0 gas, it is relatively asimple and inexpensive matter, as taught by this invent-ion, to providealso for a supply of low carbonated water. The additional apparatusrequired is merely a few small valves and interconnecting conduit. Ofpractical importance also in the systems proposed is the characteristicthat properly carbonated water is always instantly available at themixing and dispensing faucets regardless of variations in time intervalsbetween successive actuatious of the fauoets. The resultant mixedproducts are uniform and there is no waste of carbon dioxide orflavoring syrup.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for supplying low carbonated Water to a mixing anddispensing faucet of a soft drink bar and the like comprising a sourceof plain water under pressure, conduit means including a flow controldevice interconnecting said source with said faucet, second conduitmeans including a valve for discharging carbonating gas into the firstmentioned conduit-means, a source of carbonating gas for said secondconduit means, and means to control the proportion of gas dischargedinto the water contained in said first mentioned conduit means, saidflow control device being of the kind which passes a predeterminedquantity of liquid per unit of time regardless of the incoming pressureof the liquid.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 further characterized in that saidsource of carbonating gas and said means to control comprises apressurized cylinder of said gas having outlet means including apressure regulator for supplying gas to said second mentioned conduitmeans.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 further characterized in that saidsource of carbonatin-g gas and said means to control comprise a sourceof highly carbonated water and a third conduit means including a secondflow control device of the kind recited for discharging highlycarbonated water from the last mentioned source into said second conduitmeans.

-4. A soft drink bar installation having a pair of mixing and dispensingfaucets for preparing and dispensing two difierent kinds of beverage,sources of carbonated and plain water both under pressure, a firstconduit interconnecting the carbonated water source with the water inletof one of said faucets, a second conduit connected with the water inletof the other of said faucets, a first conduit means including a firstflow control device and a first valve in series interconnecting saidcarbonated water source with said second conduit, and a second conduitmeans including a second flow control device and a second valve inseries interconnecting said plain water source with said second conduit.

5. Apparatus for supplying low carbonated water to a mixing anddispensing faucet of a soft drink bar and the like comprising sources ofhighly carbonated and plain water both under pressure, a first conduitmeans References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1917Toussaint et al.

9/1952 Nissen 222129.4 X

LOUIS I. DEMBO, Primary Examiner.

C. R. CARTER, Assistant Examiner.

1. APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING LOW CARBONATED WATER TO A MIXING ANDDISPENSING FAUCET OF A SOFT DRINK BAR AND THE LIKE COMPRISING A SOURCEOF PLAIN WATER UNDER PRESSURE, CONDUIT MEANS INCLUDING A FLOW CONTROLDEVICE INTERCONNECTING SAID SOURCE WITH SAID FAUCET, SECOND CONDUITMEANS INCLUDING A VALVE FOR DISCHARGING CARBONATING GAS INTO THE FIRSTMENTIONED CONDUIT MEANS, A SOURCE OF CARBONATING GAS FOR SAID SECONDCONDUIT MEANS, AND MEANS TO CONTROL THE PROPORTION OF GAS DISCHARGEDINTO THE WATER CONTAINED IN SAID FIRST MENTIONED CONDUIT MEANS, SAIDFLOW